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I have some really exciting news that I want to share with you all today. My first little book, One Turn of The Wheel, has just been published by Three Drops Press.

Isn’t the cover beautiful…

Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn – so the wheel turns.

As they journey through the seasons, readers of all ages are invited to meet nature deities, a bewildered changeling, loving families who stick together, so-called friends who cannot be trusted, goblins, wizards, vengeful witches, helpful witches, and many others besides. Right at home in the long folk and fairy tale tradition, these are stories for enjoying year after year, and in all weathers.

You can learn more about One Turn of The Wheel, by following this link to the publisher’s website, where you can also read one of the stories from the collection, The Goblin Dance. (If perchance you do, please, please, please let me know what you think!)

I can’t thank Kate from Three Drops Press enough for all her hard work. This has been such a fun and exciting experience.

I shall have to think how to celebrate – maybe with a book launch right here on the blog? If you have any ideas, please let me know!

A word and photo prompt to get your creativity flowing this weekend. Use the prompts separately or together. It’s up to you. Write a piece of flash fiction, a poem, a chapter for your novel…anything you like. Or take the challenge below – there are no prizes – it’s not a competition but rather a fun writing exercise. If you want to share what you come up with, please leave a link to it in the comments.

Word Prompt

Reflection

Photo Prompt

Challenge

Prose Challenge – Write a story in 150 words where a character sees their reflection and is surprised by what they find.

Poetry Challenge – Write an acrostic poem, where the first letter of the first word of each line spells out “reflection” as it is read from top to bottom.

My poem, Vines of the Mind, has been included in Issue 2 of the zine, Bombinate. (You can find out more about this zine, by following this link). The theme for this issue was “vine”, which I thought was an interesting prompt. However, it was the meaning of the word “bombinate” that really caught my attention and made me want to submit something.

A word and photo prompt to get your creativity flowing this weekend. Use the prompts separately or together. It’s up to you. Write a piece of flash fiction, a poem, a chapter for your novel…anything you like. Or take the challenge below – there are no prizes – it’s not a competition but rather a fun writing exercise. If you want to share what you come up with, please leave a link to it in the comments.

Word Prompt

Nostalgia

Photo Prompt

Challenge

Prose Challenge – Write a story in 100 words where a character finds an old photograph.

Poetry Challenge – Write a poem up to 15 lines long that has a rhyming pattern of ABAB and is inspired by feelings of nostalgia.

I’m still lagging behind blogging-wise after completing NaNoWriMo, but I spotted this week’s Weekly Tanka Prompt Challenge hosted by Kiwinana over at Ramblings of a Writer, and decided to write a haiku. (I know. It’s been one of those kind of days…perhaps I will get around to writing a tanka for this prompt later in the week…) The words for Week 73 are “mornings” and “winter”.

Like this:

First well done to all those writers who have already finished this year’s NaNo and good luck to those who are still writing away.

I completed the challenge on 24th November 2017, which is by far and away my best NaNoWriMo effort ever. But that doesn’t mean that the novel I’m writing is complete. Nope. I’m guessing I’m still around 20,000 – 30,000 words off finishing my first draft, but I thought that after writing over 50,000 words in 24 days I had earned a few days away from the computer.

So that break is now over and my next task is to take a look at what I’ve written so far and find out what I still need to say. I have an idea that most of those remaining words come from the middle of the book, with the rest required to tidy up the end chapters. At this stage, I’m happy with the opening chapters / Act One. My aim is to add around another 5,000 – 6,000 words to my NaNo total by the end of November, and then hopefully have the first draft completed by the end of the year.

All-in-all, I’m pleased with what I have written and what I have learned about my writing process. It seems targeted writing sprints were my best weapon in my writing arsenal, especially on days when time was short. I’m even finding I am using them for other projects too as a way to boost my productivity and sharpen my concentration. Also having an good outline kept me focused.

With the 50,000 word target achieved, the pressure’s now off, so I’ll have a bit more time to spend catching up on all the amazing blog posts I’ve missed in my absence, especially responses written for the Weekend Writing Prompt. I’ve tried my hardest to keep on top of it, but alas, I just couldn’t manage it.

If you participated in NaNoWriMo this year, how have you found it (so far)?

A word and photo prompt to get your creativity flowing this weekend. Use the prompts separately or together. It’s up to you. Write a piece of flash fiction, a poem, a chapter for your novel…anything you like. Or take the challenge below – there are no prizes – it’s not a competition but rather a fun writing exercise. If you want to share what you come up with, please leave a link to it in the comments.